Blogs... Harrrrumph...!
in a column entitled, "When Those Pesky Blogs Undermine NPR News," the crochety National Public Radio Ombudsman, Jeffrey A. Dvorkin, ostensibly fights for journalistic ethics but instead sounds to me more like bemoaning a loss of turf...
(more)
before i start carrying on, let me pause and take a moment to ROFLMAO over his use of the word "misbehavior..." there probably isn't another word in the whole damn column that better captures his age and, even though age isn't much of a determining factor these days, certainly his mindset...
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dear dvorkin,
at the ripening age of 57, i resort to the internet almost exclusively for my news and information primarily due to a severe lack of it in msm sources... i learned a long, long time ago (in vietnam, to be exact, after observing the news-gathering habits of time magazine and marsh clark) not to take msm accounts at face value... on the internet and through the blogs, i can pore over a vast array of sources, domestic and foreign, and can begin (note the use of the word "begin") to formulate a bigger picture of what's going on...
what's happening with the blogs, partly if not wholly in reaction to the dismal state of msm in the u.s., is the rise of two things that are, to me, very exciting...
the first is a brand-new phenomenon - citizen journalism... if traditional sources either can't or won't deliver the news, what choice is there but to dig it out yourself...?
the second is as old as the country itself - direct citizen participation in government... example: during the senate foreign relations committee hearings on john bolton, a number of bloggers, myself included, were monitoring the hearings on c-span 2 and posting real-time comments in an online discussion forum... the truly remarkable part of the story is that staffers for the senators on the committee were monitoring US monitoring THEM... if that isn't direct citizen participation, i don't know what is...
best regards...
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then just to prove he doesn't know what he's talking about, he adds this...
NOT... a "column" is not a "blog" is not a "column..." Submit To Propeller
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(more)
[T]he blogosphere has proven once again to be an amoral place with few rules. The consequences for misbehavior are still vague. The possibility of civic responsibility remains remote. It is a place where the philosophy of "who posts first, wins" predominates.
Perhaps these younger people will outgrow these youthful informational indiscretions and come to their senses -- and back to media that can serve them best...
I have my doubts...
before i start carrying on, let me pause and take a moment to ROFLMAO over his use of the word "misbehavior..." there probably isn't another word in the whole damn column that better captures his age and, even though age isn't much of a determining factor these days, certainly his mindset...
------------
dear dvorkin,
at the ripening age of 57, i resort to the internet almost exclusively for my news and information primarily due to a severe lack of it in msm sources... i learned a long, long time ago (in vietnam, to be exact, after observing the news-gathering habits of time magazine and marsh clark) not to take msm accounts at face value... on the internet and through the blogs, i can pore over a vast array of sources, domestic and foreign, and can begin (note the use of the word "begin") to formulate a bigger picture of what's going on...
what's happening with the blogs, partly if not wholly in reaction to the dismal state of msm in the u.s., is the rise of two things that are, to me, very exciting...
the first is a brand-new phenomenon - citizen journalism... if traditional sources either can't or won't deliver the news, what choice is there but to dig it out yourself...?
the second is as old as the country itself - direct citizen participation in government... example: during the senate foreign relations committee hearings on john bolton, a number of bloggers, myself included, were monitoring the hearings on c-span 2 and posting real-time comments in an online discussion forum... the truly remarkable part of the story is that staffers for the senators on the committee were monitoring US monitoring THEM... if that isn't direct citizen participation, i don't know what is...
best regards...
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then just to prove he doesn't know what he's talking about, he adds this...
NPR's political editor Ken Rudin has a column (See "Political Junkie," link below), on the NPR Web site. It is, as he readily admits, a blog, albeit one that is sanctioned and sustained by NPR, just as this column is also a blog. [bold mine]
NOT... a "column" is not a "blog" is not a "column..." Submit To Propeller
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posted by profmarcus at
5/04/2005
